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‘Eyes on Earth’ June 2-3, 2020.

The call of the universe is not just a fantasy to go among the stars but also to ensure that our home habitat is a permanent place for humanity. To go among the stars is also to observe our home to make sure it is a beautiful place to return to. The “Eyes on Earth” meeting, within the Copernicus program, is intended for this purpose, to look at the Earth to get to know all its virtues and flaws, and especially how people use the only place of survival. Sign up for this event, which will take place on June 2-3, 2020, where you can interactively engage in lectures that interest you.

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International Online Certificate Program “Introduction to Rocket and Satellite Engineering

On the 12th of April the whole world celebrates the day of aviation and cosmonautics — a memorable date dedicated to the first human flight into space. This is a special day — the day of the triumph of science and all those who work in the space industry today. On this day All-Russian science Festival NAUKA 0+ (one of the largest social projects in Russia in the field of science popularization, organized with the support of the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation, Lomonosov Moscow state University, Moscow Government, Russian Academy of Sciences) launches an International Online Certificate Program “Introduction to Rocket and Satellite Engineering” (April 12-17, 2020).

More on the internet: https://festnauki.timepad.ru/event/1295122/ep4/

The program is extremely interesting and one of the presenters, prof. Alessandro Golkar, will be a speaker at the Brijuni Conference in September. The program has very interesting topics and we recommend it to everyone, especially students.

Lecture by prof. Alessandro Golkar, The New Space Video Series:

Other online lectures can be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeMnLKM7n9YJ1cBXIGk8_Uw/videos

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SME4SPACE COVID-19 Information section

In order to help European Space SMEs in this very complex and hard situation, SME4SPACE decided to open the present section.

In this section, all the support measures and initiatives in favour of European Space SMEs from ESA, EC and Member States are listed and/or described, with also a brief report of the survey conducted by SME4SPACE on urgent actions/needs and concerns of European Space SMEs.

Moreover, you can find below direct links to the relative COVID-19 sections of SME4SPACE Working Members.

SME4SPACE first results and propositions from COVID-19 survey proposed to ESA, European Commission and relative Member States

Hereafter, SME4SPACE presents a summary of the results of a rapid survey on urgent actions/needs and concerns of the European Space SMEs.
The survey was conducted from 20 to 24 March 2020.
The survey was distributed to all SME4SPACE Members and to our broader mailing list and also posted on SME4SPACE website as well as on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The survey was distributed to all SME4SPACE Members and to our broader mailing list and also posted on SME4SPACE website as well as on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The survey received 113 replies from 18 European (both ESA and EC Member States) Countries with also Canada.

Among the major problems that European Space SMEs are facing, we find:

  1. Cash flow constrain
  2. Workforce availability
  3. Supply problem

Among the proposed urgent actions, we highlight:

  • Advance payment increasing (even at milestone level and after the project start)
  • Flexibility
    • stick on the schedule vs postponement of deadlines/milestones (without any eventual penalty)
    • To extend projects duration in order to complete the activity
    • Enable CCNs in ESA projects related to additional costs caused by the current situation
    • Anticipate payments, review Milestone Payments Plans, fractionating milestones
    • Neutralization of contractual penalties
  • Financial support:
    • Space Dedicated Venture Capital
    • Short term loans and R&D grants;
    • give SME access to credits
    • Enable full tax deduction for capital increase by current shareholder(s)
    • Intervention of Government and European Institution in support to SME in term of Funds.
    • Funding support to maintain economic viability
    • Financial support to help start-ups/SME’s cover staff costs following contract cancellation and delayed investments.
    • EC to keep level of budget allowed to Space for next years. Decisions have been taken based on this. A reduction of the budget allowed would be a disaster for our business.
    • ESA and EC can easily release payments on already implemented grants / contracts / project milestones early

Download the full presentation with the results of our survey

SME4SPACE link to COVID-19 survey

ESA and European Commission measures

We have just sent to ESA and European Commission the results of our survey and we expect that these will be taken in consideration.

For the time beeing, the following measures have been already adopted:

SME4SPACE Working Members’ COVID-19 sections

Aerospace-Valley COVID-19 Section (in French)

AIPAS COVID-19 Section (in Italian)

COVID-19 Madrid Aerospace Cluster Section (in Spanish)

UKSpace Coronavirus COVID-19 Links and News Updates (in English)

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FHWN – A3 signing of the Cooperation Agreement

Adriatic Aerospace Association delegation, composed of President Slobodan Danko Bosanac, Filip Kisic, Matija Makoter, Luka Korova, Mario Mustra, Darko Luksa and Vlado Sruk visited the Aerospace Engineering Department, Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt, Austria where their director Carsten Scharlemann, Carlo Girardello, Kaarel Repaen and Wolfgang Treberspurg received us. The visit is a continuation of the collaboration on satellite technology, first of all getting to know the group’s experiences at WN on CubeSat Pegasus, which is in orbit, and on their new CLIMB project. For our part, we introduced them to the CubeSat Perun I project. After a very fruitful discussion, we visited a laboratory where satellites are assembled and tested. The meeting ended with the signing of a collaboration agreement between A3 and the Aerospace Engineering Department.